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[28]Opinion and Analysis

Smartphone usage is a threat to essential components of our humanity

[29]By The Conversation - 13 May 2020

Digital technology has been a lifeline during the [30]coronavirus
disease 2019 (COVID-19) health crisis. Yet, its impact on human
relationships remains complex. It allows for work and connection in
many domains but does so in ways that are often [31]intrusive,
exhausting, and potentially [32]corrosive to face-to-face
relationships.

The debate about technology’s effect on overall mental health rages on.
Some [33]researchers claim smartphones have [34]destroyed a generation,
while others argue [35]screen time doesn’t predict mental health at
all.

[36]After years of research on the topic, I have come to the conclusion
that screen time can disrupt a fundamental aspect of our human
experience – [37]paying attention to one another’s eyes.

Smartphones, even more than older technologies like television, have
been aggressively designed to [38]control and capitalize human
attention throughout the day by drawing people’s fingers and eyes down
to a screen and away from one another. Increasingly, people can’t look
away.

It’s all in the eyes

Human beings are almost unique among animals – [39]including closely
related primates – in our ability to share meaning and collaborate on
goals through the coordination of eye gaze.

From the earliest days of life, babies tune into their caregivers’ eyes
to find comfort and decipher emotion. [40]As they grow, people build on
these skills and learn to lock eyes with social partners to communicate
and collaborate.
[eyes.jpg] Chimpanzee eyes versus human eyes.Frank Wouters/Flickr and
piqsels.com, [41]CC BY

The whites around human eyes are large, making them highly visible to
partners. The result is humans are able to track the direction of each
other’s gaze with exquisite accuracy. Some argue this evolutionary
adaptation was [42]fundamental to Homo sapiens‘ advancement as a
species.

Still Face

Today, with the ubiquity of mobile technology, visual synchrony between
people is frequently disrupted. Are humans becoming strangers to each
others’ eyes – and does it matter?

My colleagues and I [43]studied this question by repeating an
experiment developed over 40 years ago called the [44]Still Face.

In the experiment, parents freely play with their young children, but
then are instructed to be unresponsive by holding their faces still and
inexpressive for a few minutes. This still face period is followed by a
period of repair called the reunion, when parents respond normally
again.

The three-part experiment – play, still face, reunion – creates a
microcosm in which researchers study the broader effects of parental
withdrawal and document the importance of repairing social
disconnection.

This classic experiment inspired us to conceptualize the impact of
screens on the parent-child relationship as one big naturally occurring
Still Face. In our study, we modified the still face period so that
parents, instead of keeping their faces still, were unresponsive while
using a smartphone – looking down, with eyes locked on screens in front
of their young children for two minutes. We also asked parents to
report on how much time they typically spent on screens at home.
__________________________________________________________________

[45]The Tefo Mohapi Show: Nothando Migogo on culture, colonization,
music, and law

IFRAME:
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You can also listen to the podcast on: [47]Apple Podcasts, [48]Google
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__________________________________________________________________

Children became distressed and despondent when they could not connect
with their parents. If parents reported spending high levels of time on
screens at home, children showed less emotional resilience and greater
difficulty reconnecting with parents once the two-minute period was
over.

‘Phubbing’ – snubbing someone for your phone

In a second study, yet to be published, we looked at the power of
shared gaze in the context of adult problem-solving. We assigned pairs
of adults to work together on a difficult puzzle task. One of the
adults in the pair – a research assistant, posing as a participant –
continually interrupted the joint work by breaking eye contact, texting
and talking on their phone. In the control group, the pair worked
together to solve the puzzle without interruption.

Like the study with parents and children, the effects of breaking
reciprocity and connection through eye contact were far from trivial.
Adults not only found being “phubbed” by their problem-solving partner
to be rude, they also showed less happiness, more anxiety and
heightened attention to negative rather than positive information in an
assessment immediately following the experiment.

Put technology in its place

Screens are not poison, but should be recognized as the interlopers and
disrupters they are. Put phones away when with others. Consider it the
height of rudeness to have a device out during conversations, meals,
meetings or in the middle of family game night.

Human beings have evolved to rely on social cues like eye gaze to learn
about self and others in childhood and to communicate and collaborate
effectively throughout our lives. Ubiquitous phone use is a threat to
this very essential component of our humanity, even in these
extraordinary times.
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More in Opinion and Analysis

[52]Stopping COVID-19 false information from spreading on social media is
difficult

May 13, 2020

[53]Fighting COVID-19 fake news should not come at the expense of freedom of
expression

May 12, 2020

[54]Social data is critical in combatting the spread of COVID-19 in South
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May 12, 2020

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